1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate to electronic devices, and more particularly to systems and method for providing enhanced situational awareness to users of electronic devices (e.g., communication devices).
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various communication networks known in the art. Such communication networks include a Land Mobile Radio (LMR) network, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) based network, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based network, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), an Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) based network and a Long Term Evolution (LTE) based network. Each of these communication networks comprises a plurality of communication devices and network equipment configured to facilitate communications between the communication devices. Each communication network often provides an individual call service and a group call service to service users. The individual call service is a service by which a service user (e.g., a first responder) is able to talk to another service user (e.g., another first responder). The group call service is a service by which a service user (e.g., a first responder) is able to simultaneously talk to other service users (e.g., other first responders) associated with a particular talkgroup or where a service user (e.g., internet user) is able to simultaneously talk to other service users (e.g., other internet users) associated with a particular social media profile. Each of the call services can be implemented by a Push-To-Talk (PTT) call service. The PTT call service is an instant service by which the PTT service user is able to immediately talk to one or more other PTT service users by pushing a key or button of a communication device.
During operation, a service user can be engaged in or monitoring one or more individual calls and/or group calls at any given time. In this scenario, a communication device (e.g., an LMR radio, a cellular telephone and/or a dispatch console) utilized by the service user receives packets including speech from other members of the calls. The packets are processed for obtaining speech, identifiers for the portable communication devices (e.g., a source unit identifier or a phone number) and/or alias names for the respective members of the calls (e.g., car 54 or Sergeant Smith). The speech is output from the portable communication device in an audio format via a speaker thereof. Alternatively or additionally, the speech is converted to text which is displayed on a display screen of the communication device. The identifiers and/or alias names are displayed on a display screen of the portable communication device for facilitating the recognition of the service users which are presently speaking during a call.
Despite the advantages of the above described call service process, it suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, if two people are simply acquaintances, then they may be unfamiliar with each other's alias names, communication device identifiers and voices. As such, the people may have difficulty recognizing each other based on said identifiers, said alias names and/or said voices. Also, the location of the people relative to each other can not be determined based on alias names and communication device identifiers.